Passive Voice

F. Passive Voice

Passive voice is the opposite of active in sentence pattern, in the passive voice, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb Azhar (2002, p.208), in another word the object in the active sentence move into subject position in the passive sentence. Both showed different understanding and function and have a dissimilar rule in use.

There are three ways of forming passive voice, such as (1) The object in the active sentence moved into subject in position in the passive sentence, (2) The subject moved to the end of the sentence and by was inserted before it – the sentence now has an agent by phrase, (3) The main verb was changed to its past participle form and the appropriate form of be was inserted before it Cowan (2008, p. 392).

1. The Nature of Passive Voice

A passive sentence is one of language features of analytical exposition text. That is why students should know and can identify it in reading text Passive voice is known as one of the characteristics of a language. The use of passive voice is very popular in both daily conversation and many different reading books. In Indonesian, the form of

passive voice is well known as “kata kerja berawalan di”. Azar (2006, p.120) says that in the passive, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. She adds that only transitive verbs (a verb that is followed by an object) that are used in the passive. Pyle (2002, p.167) says that a sentence can be either in the active or passive voice. In an active sentence, the subject performs the action. In a passive sentence, the subject receives the action. Furthermore, Pyle and Page (2002, p.168-169) states the steps how to form a correct passive voice as rules in Bahasa Indonesia or English follows:

a. The complement of the active sentence is placed at the beginning of the passive.

b. If the active sentence uses an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary should be placed after the new subject agreeing in number with the subject.

c. Insert “be” after the auxiliary.

d. Place the subject of the active sentence become the object in passive preceded by the preposition by. Dealing with this, Lado (1986, p.39), also gives some rules how to form passive voice, they are as follows:

a. The active sentence has to have the object (the verb used should be transitive).

b. The object in the active sentence becomes the subject in passive.

c. The verb in passive should be substituted into past participle preceded by to be.

d. The tenses in passive should be agreeing with the active sentence. For example: - My brotherhelped mother yesterday.

- Motherwas helped by my brother yesterday. O

Based on the sentence above, the object of an active sentence becomes the subject of a passive voice, and the subject of an active sentence is the object of by in the by-phrase in a passive sentence.

2. The Use of Passive Voice

According to Martinet and Thomson (1986, p.266), the passive sentence is used:

a. When we do not know, or do not know exactly, or have forgotten who did the action, example: You will be met at the station.

b. When the subject of the active verb would be „people‟, example: He is suspected of receiving stolen goods.

c. When the subject of the active sentence would be the indefinite pronoun one. One sees this sort of advertisement everywhere would usually be expressed, example: This sort of advertisement is seen everywhere Or You see this sort of advertisement everywhere

d. When we are more interested in the action than the person who does it, example:

The house next door has been bought (by a Mr. Brown) The house next door has been bought (by a Mr. Brown)

f. When it is not necessary to mention the doer of the action as it is obvious who he is/was/will be. Example:

The rubbish hasn’t been collected.

3. The Characteristics of Passive Sentence

The passive sentence has some characteristics. The characteristics of the passive sentence are:

a. The object in an active sentence will be the subject in the passive sentence. The subject in an active sentence will be the object in a passive sentence by using „by‟. Example: - Sintia sold the computer (active) - The computer was sold by Sintia (passive)

According to Azar (2006, p.125), a passive verb is followed with a „by phrase‟ only if it is important to know who performs an action. Usually, the „by phrase‟ is omitted from a passive sentence. The passive is most frequently used when it is not known or not important to know exactly who performs an action.

b. The use of “be + Past Participle (transitive verb)”. Students will recognize passive sentence if they find “be + past participle” in a sentence. “Be” that is used can be in

present (is, am, are), past (was, were), perfect (has been, have been, had been) and present (is, am, are), past (was, were), perfect (has been, have been, had been) and

c. Modal auxiliary + be + past participle. If the active sentence does not have a form of “be”, but it has modals, we can add “be” after modals to construct a passive sentence.

d. Direct and Indirect Object Sometimes there are two objects in a sentence, Alter (1991, p.219) they are the direct object and indirect object. In this case, the passive sentence can be formed as follows:

Example: - He gives the womansome money

Indirect Direct

- The woman is given some money by him (passive)